Police Pocket Identity of 11 KKB Members Attacking West Papuan Trans Workers

Director of the General Criminal Investigation of the West Papua Police Grand Commissioner Novia Jaya (ANTARA/Hans Arnold Kapisa)

MANOKWARI - The West Papuan Police have identified 11 suspected members of an armed criminal group who attacked 14 workers on the construction project for the trans-West Papua road route Bintuni-Maybrat, Thursday, September 29.

Director of the General Criminal Investigation of the West Papua Police, Commissioner Novia Jaya, said 11 members of the armed criminal group (KKB) suspected of carrying out the attack were identified based on pictures and videos that were distributed after the attack.

"From the pictures and videos that have been circulating, we have matched the statements of the victim's witnesses and residents around the scene. The identities of the 11 suspected perpetrators have been known", said Commissioner Novia Jaya as reported by ANTARA, Thursday, October 6.

From the results of the identification, Commissioner Novia continued, it is strongly suspected that the perpetrators of the attack on 14 workers of the trans-Papua road construction project were the Maybrat KKB network which previously in September 2021 also attacked the TNI Koramil Preparation Post (Posramil) in Kisor Maybrat Village.

"Of the 11 suspected perpetrators, there is one DPO Maybrat with the initials MM. While the other suspected perpetrators are a new group in the Moskona area, Teluk Bintuni Regency. MM is strongly suspected of being the mastermind behind the attack on 14 road project workers", he said.

The West Papua Regional Police will soon conduct a case for the determination of the suspect along with the wanted list (DPO) of the 11 members of the KKB to be distributed throughout West Papua.

According to Commissioner Novia, one worker who became a victim of the KKB attack with a severe gunshot wound is undergoing treatment at the Makassar City Hospital, South Sulawesi.

"Eight other survivors have been returned to their families, while one survivor (the cook) is still undergoing treatment at the Teluk Bintuni Regency Hospital for suffering knee injuries", he said.

The incident of the KKB attack on 14 workers of the Trans Papua Barat road construction project that occurred on Thursday, September 29, 2022, resulted in four people being killed and several others injured. The four dead were Abbas, Armin, Darmin, and Japhet.